1.
sandstorm; dust storm
A strong wind carrying sand or dust through the air, reducing visibility and causing damage. Common in desert regions.
砂嵐が近づいている。
A sandstorm is approaching.
砂漠で砂嵐に遭った。
I got caught in a sandstorm in the desert.
激しい砂嵐で視界がほとんどなくなった。
The fierce sandstorm reduced visibility to almost nothing.
2.
TV static; snow (on a screen)
The grainy, flickering pattern of random dots that appears on a television screen when there is no signal. Named for its resemblance to a sandstorm.
テレビが砂嵐になった。
The TV turned to static.
チャンネルを変えたら砂嵐だった。
When I changed the channel, it was just static.
深夜になるとテレビが砂嵐になる時代があった。
There was an era when TVs would turn to static late at night.
The weather sense is straightforward, but the TV static sense is a distinctively Japanese usage that may be unfamiliar to learners. In the analog TV era, channels that stopped broadcasting would display the characteristic grainy pattern Japanese speakers call 砂嵐. Though less common with digital TV, the word is still widely understood.
FORMATION:
砂 (sand) + 嵐 (storm)
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 砂嵐が発生する: a sandstorm occurs
- 砂嵐に巻き込まれる: to get caught up in a sandstorm
- テレビの砂嵐: TV static
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 吹雪: blizzard — snow equivalent of a sandstorm
- 黄砂: yellow sand/dust — specifically the seasonal Asian dust blown from Chinese deserts
- 砂塵: sand dust — more formal/literary term for airborne sand